School markets and educational inequality in the Republic of Ireland

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dc.check.date2022-06-30
dc.check.infoAccess to this article is restricted until 24 months after publication by request of the publisher.en
dc.contributor.authorCahill, Kevin
dc.date.accessioned2021-04-08T10:26:10Z
dc.date.available2021-04-08T10:26:10Z
dc.date.issued2020-06-30
dc.date.updated2021-04-08T10:15:59Z
dc.description.abstractSummary: Educational inequality is a persistent feature on the landscape of Irish educational history, and it remains a significant issue in the early part of the 21st century. There have been significant efforts at school reform in recent decades to intervene in a system that continues to provide significantly different outcomes based on socioeconomic position and background. These differentiated outcomes continue to be exacerbated by structural inequalities in the lives of people as well as by an increasing focus on neoliberal market principles in education. Interschool competition, particularly at the postprimary level, has fueled an ever-increasing marketplace where schools vie for desirable middle-class students through media-published school league tables. Indeed, this competitive landscape is partly constructed by an intense and high stakes race for third level places in Ireland. Nevertheless, significant policy measures have also been aimed at leveling the playing field and providing opportunities for people in communities that are more marginalized in terms of economic status and educational outcomes. Some of these policy interventions have had some impact in terms of retention in postprimary school, including the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools program; curricular interventions into education such as the Junior Certificate Schools Programme; the Leaving Certificate Applied Programme; and the allocation of additional teaching resources to schools experiencing marginalization. Schemes such as the Higher Education Access Route and the Disability Access Route to Education have also done important work in terms of ameliorating opportunities for students from marginalized economic groups and students with disabilities, respectively. However, there are overarching sociopolitical ideologies that work to maintain educational inequality in Ireland, such as the significant impact of neoliberal choice policies on schools in communities experiencing poverty and educational marginalization. These neoliberal ideas are characterized by increasing focus on outcomes, testing and assessment, school and teacher accountabilities, within-school and between-school competition in terms of admissions policies, and “syphoning off” high-achieving students (academically, musically, sports, etc.), and they often manifest in blunt instruments such as school league tables. These policies often benefit citizens with wealth and cultural capital who use their position to distance themselves educationally from the complexity and diversity of everyday society in favor of academic and cultural silos that work to reproduce advantage for the elite sectors of society.en
dc.description.statusPeer revieweden
dc.description.versionAccepted Versionen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.citationCahill, Kevin (2020) 'School Markets and Educational Inequality in the Republic of Ireland', Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education, New York: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.ORE_EDU-00847.R1en
dc.identifier.doi10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.ORE_EDU-00847.R1en
dc.identifier.endpage28en
dc.identifier.startpage1en
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/11183
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherOxford University Pressen
dc.relation.ispartofOxford Research Encyclopedia of Education
dc.relation.urihttps://oxfordre.com/education/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.001.0001/acrefore-9780190264093-e-847
dc.rights© Oxford University Press 2021.en
dc.subjectEducational inequalityen
dc.subjectMarketisation of educationen
dc.subjectSchool league tablesen
dc.subjectSchool choice in Irelanden
dc.subjectSocial class and educationen
dc.subjectIrish education policyen
dc.subjectIrish educational legislationen
dc.titleSchool markets and educational inequality in the Republic of Irelanden
dc.typeBook chapteren
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